Shocking security lapses by the US Secret Service and local police are emerging as more emerges about the movements of the man who tried to assassinate Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Authorities have already acknowledged that there was no security on the roof where the gunman opened fire, allowing him to get very close to the former president.
But new reports show authorities had been following him before the shooting.
This is what we know.
A young man who acts strangely
Thomas Matthew Crooks was on the radar of security officers at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, at least an hour before he shot Trump, FBI officials said during a briefing on the shooting.
Thomas Matthew Crooks appears in his 2021 Bethel Park High School yearbook photo.
(Bethel Park School District)
A local police officer noticed the 20-year-old acting strangely outside the rally site, authorities said. Attendees saw Crooks walking near magnetometers at the event entrance, the Associated Press reported.
Local officers alerted their command post and took a photograph, and radio communications alerted the Secret Service to their presence, law enforcement sources told The Times.
But authorities soon lost sight of Crooks as they kept watch over the thousands of other people at the Butler Farm Show, sources said.
Suspicions about Trump's speech
About 20 minutes before Trump took the stage, a local police officer on surveillance duty spotted Crooks near a building beyond the area secured by the Secret Service, according to Republican U.S. senators briefed on the matter.
Attendees also noticed Crooks, who had climbed onto the roof with an AR-style rifle. In several videos from the demonstration shared on social media, people can be heard shouting, “He’s got a gun!” as they point to the spot where Crooks was standing.
Local officers attempted to climb onto the roof but were stopped when the gunman pointed his gun at them, forcing them to duck for cover, Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe told local news stations.
According to Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), who attended an FBI and Secret Service briefing Wednesday, Crooks had a backpack and a rangefinder, a binocular-like device used to determine the distance to a target.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump arrives at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
(Evan Vucci/Associated Press)
Event not cancelled despite security threats
Despite all the information about a potential threat, the Secret Service decided not to cancel Trump's speech.
Trump took the stage at 6:02 p.m. About six minutes later, attendees saw a gunman lying on the back of the American Glass Research roof, just over a football field from Trump’s stage. Video showed spectators pointing up and expressing concern.
The building was supposed to be under surveillance by local police because it was not in the immediate vicinity of the site, which was secured by the Secret Service, according to law enforcement sources who were not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation.
On NBC’s “Meet the Press Now” on Thursday, Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said he believed Trump should not have been allowed to go on Saturday.
“Why was Donald Trump allowed to get on that stage when there was this threat that was serious enough that it was necessary to inform and notify… counter-shooters?” he asked.
Cramer said he was told at Wednesday's FBI briefing that snipers were notified of a suspicious person 20 minutes before the shooting.
“I mean, when you look at that timeline and you think that at 5:51 p.m., this threat was so significant that the Secret Service notified the counter-sniper unit, who then put their eyes on that roof. So if it was significant enough to call in the counter-sniper unit, why wasn’t it significant enough to stop the president from going on stage?”
A shocking discovery on the roof
Two officers went to check the roof of American Glass Research, and one helped the other climb up to look over the edge. According to a Facebook post by Butler Township Commissioner Edward Natali, Crooks pointed his firearm at the officer, who immediately ducked and fell backward, injuring himself.
Knowing he had been spotted, Crooks crawled to the top of the roof and took aim at Trump. At around 6:11 p.m., he fired eight shots, killing former local fire chief Corey Comperatore, wounding two others and severing Trump's ear with one bullet. Within 10 seconds of the first shot, Secret Service snipers fired on Crooks, killing him.
Experts have told The Times that the snipers' delay was because they were trying to locate the gunman's position. The sloping roof where Crooks was located apparently made it difficult for the snipers to see him.
Internet searches for Biden and Trump
It’s unclear how long Crooks had been planning the shooting. He conducted internet searches for appearances by both Trump and President Biden before apparently settling on the Butler location, 50 miles from his home in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, law enforcement sources told The Times.
The morning of the shooting, he bought a ladder and 50 rounds of ammunition and practiced at a gun club, according to law enforcement sources. After he was killed, officers found homemade explosives inside his car and a remote detonator next to his body, according to people familiar with the evidence gathered in the investigation.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is helped off the stage following the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.
(Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press)
Fingers pointing
U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said in an interview with ABC News that no one was guarding the roof of the American Glass Research building because its playground was considered unsafe. She added that local police were responsible for the building's outer perimeter.
But Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger told the Washington Post that the Secret Service “was informed that the local police department did not have the personnel to help protect that building.”
Natali said on Facebook that seven local officers had been assigned to traffic enforcement duties in the area and some left their posts to assist in the search after hearing reports of a suspicious man, including one who tried to climb onto the roof.
He said anyone who said local police were assigned to that building was “lying or covering their back.”
On Wednesday, Cheatle was subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee, which called the assassination attempt “a complete failure of the agency's core mission.”
